control. >> now at 11:00, nonstop rain under way. we go into caltran's command center, as it gets set for wild weather set to unfold during the morning commute. we're on storm watch tonight. i'm janelle wang. raj and jessica are off tonight. the rain is picking up right now across the bay area. tonight, flood watches and high wind warnings are in effect. we have live coverage. jean elle is in the north bay. stephanie will give us an inside look at caltrans' operation. and jeff ranieri is looking at the storm. >> we've been talking about it for days. now, it's starting to get its act together. let's put a track on this. you see the moisture tap from the pacific. and to the north. stretches almost 500 miles. also, out ahead of the strongest

part of the storm, winds gusting from 15 to 40 miles per hour. the latest and most urgent watch in place is a flash-flood watch. it includes all of our bay area coastline, even san francisco, into marin, napa and is a gnome counties. until monday morning. and as for quick, rising water, that may occur on the streets as the rain starts to fall. again, up into napa, santa rosa, and down into san rafael. the biggest area of concern is in the north bay. san rafael to santa rosa, in the past six hours alone has picked up an inch of rain. and heavier rain over mill valley, right over the san anselmo creek, which is a sore spot when we get a lot of rain like that. we'll have details on what that creek looks like right now. and the russian river. and we'll let you know what this means in the south bay. you haven't had too much rain in the past couple days. but it's on the way for you, as

well. as you know, traffic can be a mess when it rains. we have a look at the rush hour commute on our traffic cams across the bay area, from the golden gate bridge to 280 in san jose. stephanie is in berkeley, where she got in the caltrans war room, of sorts. >> reporter: caltrans crews do most of their work before the rain hits. clearing storm drains in the problematic areas. we're along 80 in berkeley at university avenue. it's one of the most notorious stretches for crashes. you see plenty of traffic coming through here. crews are keeping close track of roads through hundreds of cameras and thousands of sensors all around the bay area. >> unfortunately, he did get hit. >> reporter: but that man was able to walk away, after a car crashed into him, on the 80

on-ramp. >> you have to watch for your safety. >> reporter: especially in the dark and wet conditions. >> if you think it's not going to happen to you, that's when it happens to you. you crash. you get hurt. worst-case scenario, somebody dies. it's a loved one. it's an innocent person. >> reporter: caltrans crews are working around the clock to prevent that worst-case scenario. >> reporter: its oakland-based traffic management center has 35 screens, connecting caltrans to 300 cameras set up around the bay area freeways, to help speed up response time to accidents and emergencies. this interactive map shows real-time traffic data, collected from thousands of sensors. green is good. yellow shows traffic slow. red means trouble. >> if we see a lot of red dots, then we know we can zoom in and find the nearest traffic camera and find out what the problem is right away. >> reporter: one of the major problems in the south bay today was on the off-ramp to capital expressway from 101 north, where four cars crashed, landing one

on top of another. haas says most trouble spots are where you would expect, close to the water. 101 and lucky drive, and the gilman university stretch on 80 and berkeley. it's a straightaway. >> they tend to drive faster. and with the wet roads, it puddles up around gilman. >> reporter: and it can happen more often this time of year. >> it's the holiday season. people are in a rush. just enjoy the time with your family, your friends. and slow down. >> reporter: now, caltrans has not this warning of rain, but also high winds on the bridges. specifically richmond, san rafael and the golden gate bridge. and expecting a very messy morning commute. you can tune into nbc bay area's "today in the bay," and check in with our traffic expert, to let you know what you need to know about the roads. >> thanks so much, stephanie. let's check in with jean

elle, live in petaluma, to show how people will prepare for the storms. >> reporter: people here in the north bay are used to getting a lot of rain. and they take warnings about flooding seriously. look at this building. it is lined with plastic and sandbags. lots of people here in petaluma aren't taking any chances. street flooding makes for slower driving in petaluma. say they the rain's not slowing up. >> people are crazy. i try to avoid going downtown when it's raining. >> reporter: but julie made it to work. with the petaluma river so close and several inches of rain expected, the restaurant owners aren't taking any chances. >> the city of petaluma or petaluma police department offers them. so, might as well take precautions. >> reporter: cities and counties all over the bay area are watching rising rivers and creeks. >> certainly, if there's a lot

of rain between now and the fourth storm that come throughs, that could be a concern. >> reporter: some are out enjoying the storms. rusty is preparing for the worst, at a sandbag station in petaluma. >> we had over 150 sandbags already. but it's not enough to seal off the building. we have to get 50 more. a last-minute run. >> reporter: filling bags with their hands in the rain. this team hopes the effort will keep the family business dry. >> hopefully it's just a preventative measure. >> reporter: with flooding possible, rls technology is counting on this wall of plastic and sandbags. employees say the building has flooded before. that's part of the reason why they put so much effort into protecting it tonight. like so many others, they'll just have to wait and see if the water rises and if what they built holds up. >> fingers crossed. our storm watch continues in moments. right now, you can get the latest on the wet weather on our website, nbcbayarea.com. you can send us your father

pictures by e-mailing them to news tips. oakland police found a 16-year-old girl who disappeared after walking away from her group home on tuesday. the girl who has the mental capacity of a 9-year-old to 12-year-old, was found in san francisco tonight. oakland police say their investigation is ongoing. and they could give us more information tomorrow. a quiet city with one rude awakening. the search is on for the man who broke into a palo alto apartment and tried to sexually assault a woman while she was sleeping. and tonight, police are trying to determine if it's the same man behind a string of recent groping attacks in the same area. george kiriyama is palo alto, with the latest. >> reporter: they're looking for this attacker tonight. as you said, they're trying to see if there's a connection between this latest incident and a groper who has attacked three

women in the past few months. >> just some random guy. he could be targeting anybody. >> reporter: that's what scares neighbor lindsay barlow the most. palo alto police are looking for a man who broke into this apartment at 2:00 this morning, then attempted to rape a woman asleep inside. >> they exchanged some words. he pushed her on the bed. and she sustained a minor injury to her wrist. >> she did a good job of stopping him and getting away from the crime. she fought him off physically. she was loud. she yelled. and she called 911 as fast as she could. >> reporter: even more troubling, this morning's attempted sexual assault happened in the same area where three separate women were groped in the past few months. no arrests have been made in those cases. and investigators are looking into whether there's a connection between all the attacks. >> it's a concern. we're going to pull out all the stops. look at our past accidents that may be related. >> reporter: the victim is in

her 20s and lives alone. lindsay barlow says having her husband next to her makes a difference. >> i think i would be a lot more nervous and a lot more shaken up if i was somebody that was living on my own. yeah. that's really scary, actually. she's thinking of taking a self-defense class because of what happened to her neighbor. we're live in palo alto tonight. >> thank you, george. an east oakland neighborhood reeling tonight after two teenage girls were killed in a hail of gunfire. teddy bears and candles mark the spot where they were killed. the two were best friends. and police are trying to figure it why they were targeted. neighbors heard the gunshots early sunday morning and ran to their aid. they say the killings are over the top, even for oakland. >> it's not safe for nobody. nobody. when it comes to females getting

killed, that's when you know people ain't got a heart out here. that's when you know there's no justice, no peace. >> at the time, police have no suspects. our storm watch continues as the rain falls harder across the bay area tonight. you're looking at petaluma, where the rain is falling right now. and we're tracking when the worst of the storms will arrive. >> you see the sandbags in that photo. a lot of people preparing for the potential of maybe some flooding. the winds 15 miles per hour to 30 miles per hour. with the latest storms starting to push in. here's our flash flood watch. including san francisco, the north coast and the north bay. i'll have the timeline in a few minutes. coming up, why runways are dark tonight at a california airport. plus, the mayan calendar predicts the world is coming to an end next month. or does it? why doomsday could be just the beginning.

the rain intensifying right now. a live shot from san rafael. you can see the rain is coming down hard. residents there getting soaked. jeff raineri rejoins in five minutes with an update on what's ahead for this weekend. you can follow us on twitter. just search for nbc bay area. we'll be tweeting traffic troubles and weather updates tomorrow morning. authorities are searching for an 11-year-old girl, who phoenix police say she was taken out of the hospital with a catheter in her heart. the person who took her? police say it's her mother. these surveillance pictures were

taken last night, when the young girl was walked out of the phoenix children's hospital. her parents brought her there to be treated for leukemia. during her treatment, a chest catheter was placed in her heart. the little girl's arm was amputated due to infections. for unknown reasons, police say her mother removed the i.v., changed her daughter's clothes and walked her out. medical personnel says if the catheter is not medically removed, the child could die. the family was seen leaving the hospital, possibly in a black ford ban. a mechanical failure could stop some planes coming to the bay area. two runways are in the dark. that's causing cancellations at all three bay area airports. united and delta have canceled all departing flights out of burbank. flights going into burbank are not impacted. powerball is coming to california. that could mean some monster

jackpots in the future. the california lottery commission decided to become the 43rd state to join the game. last night, two tickets held the winning number for the jock pat of $597 million. and starting in april, california will join the action. lottery officials say it could create the possibility of a $1 billion jackpot. it's happening again. the world is possibly coming to an end, this time on december 21st. it's a prediction that's attributed to ancient mayan text. but did they really predict our doom? we look at what to expect 22 days from tonight. >> reporter: the mayan prediction of the end of the world, is the stuff of movies. this one from 2009, shows every imaginable kind of doom for mankind.

"aing pock lip toe" shows the only way to save a dying kingdom. while december 21st, 2012 represents an ending for the maya, it's not the ending. >> maya would say it's the end of a cycle. >> reporter: jean teaches courses in religious study and christian and native spiritual tradition. >> when the sun goes on the equinox. >> reporter: the mayan calendar centers on the apocalypse. she explains that there will be a galactic alignment. but the date only appears twice in mayan text. and not in the context of armageddon. >> it's the end of a period. and the next morning, we wake up and begin another cycle. and we become more intentional

about who we are. >> reporter: that is also the conclusion of this documentary, "2012: the beginning." the filmmaker lived among the maya for years to find out what they believe about the ancient predictions. >> the only ones that knew much about it learned about it from our media. or from missionaries that came down to their part of the world. >> reporter: the filmmaker says at the end of other cycles, the maya co-created the beginning of the next. once by walking away from their capital city. another time by initiating a new form of rulership. all on an earth that is constantly cleansing and purging itself. >> the maya always believed that life goes on, no matter what. and that with each ending is a great, new beginning. and so, they didn't and don't believe that this is the whole doomsday that the world is going to come to an end. that's really something that's big in our culture. not in theirs. >> reporter: just last year, these billboards appeared around the country, announcing the end of days prediction of an oakland

pastor and radio host. >> it will begin with a huge earthquake in probably on the other side of the world, where the day begins. >> reporter: might the maya predict what he could not? the comment from the family radio, is mr. camping never put stock in the maya predictions because they do not come from the bible. he is no longer interested in any end time predictions. >> we're looking for a thrill. looking for something to take us away from the humdrum of life. >> reporter: that may be the reason for the tours and the parties planned for this december, and the fascination that will likely last beyond december 21st. but believing in the maya prediction, means believing in something other than the end. >> use this as a time as a moment in history, to wake up. it's a great time to wake up and realize why you're here.

>> there's some experts who say the december 2012 date is off by 15 years. jeff raineri is always on. he's giving us our forecast. >> thank you. we're tracking the latest concern. a flash flood watch for our entire bay area coastline, including san francisco and the north bay. the thing to know about this, we are expecting the heaviest rain in the zone with the flash flood watch. it's here to warn you that we could have some rising water. if you drive upon some water, you're not sure the depth of it, especially at night, do not drive through it. it only takes a couple of feet of water to carry away a car. we're not in that situation yet. but the water could rise quickly, especially in the north bay. we're getting a heavy zone of rain ahead of the core of the system which will arrive tomorrow morning. and some of the heaviest rainfall, in the north bay. impressive rainfall totals in the past six hours. almost an inch of rain in santa rosa. that's causing a lot of water to

rise up on highway 101. also down here in san rafael. even near mill valley in the san anselmo creek, which tends to rise when we get a lot of water. anyone commuting in the early morning hours for tomorrow, may want to think about postponing it later in the morning or planning a lot of extra time. down in the south bay, we're finding showers to continue to develop for the south. it will be heavy here in the morning hours for san jose and the east bay. let's take you outside to the live camera network tonight. we're tracking a lot. this is in san rafael, where some of the heaviest rainfall currently is, with our slow-moving storm that's going to inch its way uf off to is south. we have the second storm for you, continuing to arrive for tonight and tomorrow. it's going to linger for about two days. we'll get a small wave of energy passing to the north. we're calling it the third system, as we head throughout saturday. our final storm in the series of storms will arrive on sunday.

that's when our flood concern will be the heightest, as we will have potentially some six to seven inches across the north bay. your rainfall timeline is like to find the heaviest zone in the south bay and east bay. it will be the worst commute for silicon valley back into los gatos and the santa cruz mountains. by 11:00 a.m., the heaviest rain pushes out. we'll see lingering showers for 6:00 p.m. on friday. and residual showers saturday morning. we're not going to look at the next zone of heavier rain until we head into sunday morning. that's when the final storm system will arrive in the forth bay, down to the south bay. several rounds of wet weather coming our way. and look at the stark contrast here. up in the north bay, anywhere from three to nearly five inches expected by sunday. then, you look down to the south bay. one to two inches for you. it will be more manageable in the south and east bay. the north bay will get hit hard.

as far as the winds go, they could top 50 miles per hour through tomorrow morning's commute. not only wet, but also windy. the wind will relax in the afternoon hours. we're concerned about the russian river. it could get close to action stage sunday and monday. not quite flood stage. but very, very close to that. and san anselmo creek, 2.40 feet right now. critical level is ten feet. on your seven-day forecast, here we go. the storm for tomorrow morning will keep lingering showers with the weaker wave of energy on saturday. and sunday, our flood concern will be the highest, with the last storm arriving. plenty of wet weather, as we've been mentioning. take it slow out there. >> especially tomorrow morning. coming up, the san jose skyline could be getting a makeover. find out who has to approve plans for it can happen.

now, to a story you'll see only on nbc bay area.

the san jose skyline may be changing if they can get clearance by the faa. they want taller buildings. since downtown is in the flight path of the san jose airport, there are height restrictions. they say that's costing the city money. if we had the ability to wild higher, we would wont to do that. more feet on the sidewalk. more people using restaurants and retail. and obviously, that attracts more business. >> the faa is doing a study, looking at other airport's emergency takeoff patterns. they might allow taller buildings downtown. but critics say taller buildings will ruin the view for the buildings already in downtown.

hi, everybody. scott reiss in the comcast sportsnet newsroom, with the story that keeps going and

going. one more day, talking 49er quarterbacks. today, it was the other guy doing the talking. dave feldman with more. >> it sucks. i don't know what else to say. >> reporter: that pretty much says it all. alex smith, the now backup quarterback, speaking publicly for the first time since his demotion on wednesday. were you prepared for it? >> well, for sure, yeah. i knew, based off the last couple of weeks, the way things have gone. >> reporter: some would argue, not likely. smith was playing at the highest level of his career. the final eight quarters before leaving the rams game with a concussion, were way above a game managerer. >> you stay in your place with your play. i think i did that. the only thing i did to lose my job is get a concussion. >> reporter: what makes it worse for smith is the team is rolling. first place in the afc west. 8-2-1. and undefeated in the last five games. >> there's something special

going on here. you sacrifice and invest so much time. and like i said, i really feel like, you know, i haven't done anything besides get a concussion to really kind of, you know, to -- and i feel like i'm playing good football. >> reporter: and as far as resentment toward coach harbaugh, who has has been given credit for smith's resurgence. >> i don't make these decisions. that's what he gets paid to do. he's the head coach. i'm going to continue to get ready. you know, and make the most of my next opportunity. >> reporter: smith was asked if he tried to talk coach harbaugh out of the decision. he paused for a moment and said, no. saying, coach isn't the type of guy who changes his mind. and clearly, he had put a lot of thought into the decision. in santa clara, with the 49ers, dave feldman, nbc bay area news. the warriors with a dramatic one-point win at oracle over the

nuggets. tomorrow, pack 12 championship game. ucla at stanford.

you can count on the holiday tree, and the christmas carols for the christmas washington tv special. but this year, there will be a break from tradition. ♪ of course, this year, christmas in washington will include the pop culture phenom, psy, dancing and singing "gangnam style." he's going to do the dance for president obama and everybody else. reminder, storm coverage continues starting at 4:30 in the morning. we'll have the latest traffic and weather trouble spots. and on nbcbayarea.com, as well. thanks for joining us. stay safe, driving tomorrow. [ woman ] ring. ring. progresso.

i just served my mother-in-law your chicken noodle soup but she loved it so much... i told her it was homemade. everyone tells a little white lie now and then. but now she wants my recipe [ clears his throat ] [ softly ] she's right behind me isn't she? [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. of green giant vegetables it's easy to eat like a giant... ♪ and feel like a green giant. ♪ ho ho ho ♪ green giant

>> announcer: it's "the tonight show with jay leno," featuring rickey minor and "the tonight show" band. tonight, jay welcomes -- newt gingrich. from "lizard lick towing," repo man, ron shirley. the music of grouplove. and jay looks at "what's trendingomorrow." and now, jay leno! [ cheers and applause ] captions paid for by nbc-universal television captions by vitac www.vitac.com ♪ [ cheers and applause ]